CIRCE


The dominion over which Rajah Nehal Singh exercised his partial authority
was a tract of unfruitful land extending over about two hundred square
miles and sparely inhabited by a branch of the Aryan race which through
countless generations had kept itself curiously aloof from its neighbors.
The greater number were Hindus of the strictest type, and perhaps owing to
their natural conservatism they had succeeded in keeping their religion
comparatively free from the abuses and distortions which it was forced to
undergo in other regions. Up to the year l8--the state had been to all
practical purposes independent. Its poverty and unusual integral cohesion
made it at once a dangerous enemy and an undesirable dependent, which it
was tacitly agreed to let alone until such time when action should become
imperative. That time had come under the reign of Behar Asor--then Behar
Singh. This prince, who, his followers declared, could trace his descent
from Brahma himself, unexpectedly, after he had been living in
hand-in-glove friendship with his European neighbors, proclaimed a Holy
War, massacred all foreigners within his reach, and for eighteen long
months succeeded, by means of a species of guerrilla warfare, in keeping
the invading armies at bay. Partly owing to the unflagging determination
of the English troops, partly owing also to the intense hatred with which
he was regarded by all Mohammedans, he was eventually overcome, though he
himself was never captured. It was believed that he died while fleeing
through the vast jungles with which his land was overgrown, and this idea
was strengthened by the fact that, though a large reward for his capture
was offered, nothing further had ever been heard of him.

From that time the land came under the more or less direct control of the
Government. As a concession to the population, Behar Singh's one-year-old